[Distutils] setuptools: package management and explicit version numbers

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 11:32 PM 8/11/2005 -0500, Ian Bicking wrote:
>Hopefully setuptools won't get installed 99% of the time, just once or 
>twice per machine.  Because setuptools installation can happen even when 
>nothing installation-related is being requested, it's a bit out of the 
>norm.  Hence the confirmation, or at least prominent notification.

Technically, only the download can happen when nothing installation-related 
is being requested.


>I also, like most unix users, don't usually start by running a command as 
>root, so ez_setup will fail in that situation.  At least by putting up the 
>interactive message it's not going to be as surprising when that happens.

You only let root connect to the internet?  :)

Seriously, if you run setup.py --help-commands or some such, all that's 
going to happen is that setuptools.egg gets downloaded into the current 
directory and stuck on sys.path for the duration of the script.  The 
piggyback installation only takes place as part of a "setup.py 
install".  So, you shouldn't need root just to run the setup script if 
you're not installing.  Similarly, if the setup script has any 
'setup_requires' eggs, those eggs just get downloaded to the current 
directory and put on sys.path as well - and they do not do a piggyback 
install, because you might need them only once.

In any case, piggyback installation only happens when you "setup.py 
install", not for any other operation whatsoever.  Download of setup-time 
dependencies, however, occurs on the first run of setup, no matter what the 
command.  I suppose I need to add an explanation of the setup_requires 
downloads, too.